I have some IRCs - maybe I should try swapping them at the post office to see if the clerks know what to do with it!
I’ve used double-reply postal cards for a mail project recently and they’re very dissimilar from IRCs.
First of all, they’re only good domestically.
And secondly, the regulations that allow for them to be mailed conjoined at the regular card rate state that the reply half “must be designed for reply mail purposes only”, so it needs to be mailed pre-addressed either to the sender or to another delivery point the sender controls—cf IRCs, which can be exchanged for postage to any further recipient.
They are, however, handy for their intended purposes, which is to provide a postage-paid response to someone you’re mailing (without requiring the hassle or necessary volume for BRM).
But I just like using postal cards in any case, as they provide roughly twice the message space of a picture postcard.
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I was told by a postal clerk in Japan that they no longer sell IRCs in Japan …
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Thanks for the information. I made this podt ads a ew topic but the moderator moved it here. I’ve had my own “postal cards” printed which I’ve found works well for those PostCrossers who request lots of stamps.
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I have just found online that in Japan they still sell IRCs mainly at bigger post offices but now it is 180 yen per IRC since October 2023. It used to be 150 yen until then.